Dr Ian Massey is a UK based writer, specialising in twentieth century and contemporary art and artists. He is the author of Patrick Procktor: Art and Life (Unicorn Press, 2010); John Blackburn (Sansom & Co., 2018); Queer St Ives and Other Stories (Ridinghouse, 2022); and co-author (with Anthony Hepworth) of Keith Vaughan: The Mature Oils (Sansom & Co., 2012). Ian’s monograph on the artist Brendan Stuart Burns will be published by Lund Humphries in November 2025. He is currently writing a book about the artist Mark Lancaster.

Ian has written for a wide range of publications, including The Art Newspaper, The Brooklyn Rail, The Burlington Magazine, Charleston Press, Luncheon, PN Review, Sight and Sound, and The World of Interiors. He has also written about artists for artuk.org, and written many specially commissioned essays for publication in exhibition catalogues, for galleries in the UK, Italy and New Zealand. 

Ian also works as a freelance curator. His curatorial projects include retrospectives of work by the artist Patrick Procktor at Huddersfield Art Gallery (2012), and Arts University Bournemouth (2016); the group show Pure Romance at The Redfern Gallery, London (2016); and Mark Lancaster: Thinking and Feeling – Paintings 1960-1990, also at The Redfern Gallery (2023). Ian is lead curatorial advisor for a forthcoming exhibition at Tate St Ives.